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Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American adult animated parody talk show, created by Mike Lazzo and hosted by the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. Though the original 1960s series aired as a standard Hanna-Barbera Saturday-morning superhero cartoon, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a reboot of the series intended for adults, reinterpreted as a surreal spoof talk show and produced using the original artwork. The first two seasons were presented as a serious talk show with subdued jokes, while the later seasons relied more on surrealism, non-sequiturs, and parodies. Space Ghost Coast to Coast is considered to be the first fully produced Cartoon Network original series. It premiered on April 15, 1994, and originally ended on December 17, 1999. The series was revived on May 7, 2001, and on September 2, 2001 the series moved from Cartoon Network to the then-newly formed late programming block Adult Swim, where new episodes premiered until April 12, 2004. Two final seasons were released on GameTapfrom 2006 to 2008. There were a total of 108 episodes, over the course of 11 seasons. Space Ghost Coast to Coast is known for inspiring the series Cartoon Planet; The Brak Show; Sealab 2021; Aqua Teen Hunger Force; Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; The Venture Bros.; Perfect Hair Forever; and The Eric Andre Show. Format pace Ghost Coast to Coast used the talk show format as its template, but subverted it regularly. Various celebrities appeared on the show as guests. They were shown on a TV screen next to Space Ghost's desk, and unlike the characters, they were not animated. In early episodes of the show, Space Ghost apparently believed his guests were other superheroes and usually opened the interview by asking them about their superpowers. His interactions with guests were almost always painfully awkward, and sometimes hostile. It was sometimes hard to tell if guests were aware of the nature of the program on which they were appearing. Their answers often did not match the questions coming from Space Ghost, because the questions were changed after the interview. This method was dropped in later episodes, and the guests were allowed to directly interact with the characters. Space Ghost's relationship with his co-workers was even worse. His bandleader, an evil talking mantis named Zorak, and his director/producer, a red-helmeted lava man named Moltar, worked for Space Ghost as punishment for their crimes. They frequently disrupt the show and make no secret of the fact that they hate him. Most episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast were about 15 minutes in length, although there were a few 30-minute episodes. Cartoon Network often aired two episodes back-to-back to make a 30-minute programming block. In the first few years of the show, Cartoon Network would show episodes of the original 1960s and 1980s Space Ghost cartoons (sometimes with an unusual added laugh track) after the 11-minute episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Music n early seasons of the show, music was played by Zorak and his band "The Original Way-Outs". The original theme song, "Hit Single", was composed by free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock, performed by Sharrock on guitar, Lance Carter on drums, Eddie Horst on bass and Alfreda Gerald on vocals. Sharrock and Carter recorded a number of songs for the show, several of which were later compiled on the album Space Ghost Coast to Coast. As a tribute to Sharrock, who died in May 1994 shortly after the show first aired, the episode "Sharrock" featured nearly fifteen minutes of unedited takes of music recorded for the show. Seasons 4–6 featured a new closing theme by Man or Astro-man? and in later seasons the opening theme and titles were almost completely abandoned. Various other music was sometimes used as the theme song, including the CHiPs theme song for the episode titled "CHiPs". An hour-long musical season finale for the 1998 season was planned, featuring the bands Yo La Tengo and Cornershop, but was never produced. Production Space Ghost Coast to Coast was created by Mike Lazzo after he was asked to create a cartoon to appeal to adults.3 The original name of the show stemmed from early 1993, while Andy Merrill and Jay Edwards were coming up with names for a marathon of the original Space Ghost TV show to air on Cartoon Network, trying to find things that rhyme with "Ghost". The series premiered on April 15, 1994,456 having aired initially at 11:00 pm ET on Friday nights, with an encore showing of the episode on Saturday night. Later, the program was moved to various late-night time slots, having usually been on weekends. In February 1995, an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was simulcast on Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT for the "World Premiere Toon-In" special debut of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons series. In the special, Space Ghost interviewed a few of the new directors, while the Council of Doom were the judges of the cartoon clips. The first run ended on December 17, 1999, ending with the episode "King Dead". But in 2000, Cartoon Network premiered stealth pilots for the show's spin-offs The Brak Show, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force; all of which were created by the people who worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. On September 2, 2001, new episodes of the series, along with re-runs of the existing episodes, moved to Adult Swim, a late night programming block, launched by Cartoon Network that night. The series ended its television run in 2004 with "Live at the Fillmore". In 2006, the series returned as a five-minute web series on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap online pay service in which Space Ghost interviewed celebrities from the video game industry and GameTap's artist of the month. The series officially ended with the final webisode on May 31, 2008. On April Fools' Day 2014, Adult Swim had an unannounced Space Ghost Coast to Coast marathon with new material in the form of commercials featuring Space Ghost, Zorak and Moltar in a voice-recording booth ad-libbing lines from episodes. Cast * George Lowe – Space Ghost, Announcer, Salesman, and various other characters * C. Martin Croker – Zorak, Moltar, and various other characters * Andy Merrill – Brak, Lokar, and various other characters * Don Kennedy – Tansit * Scott Finnel – Harvey Birdman * Dave Willis – various characters * Brad Abrell – Chad Ghostal * Bobcat Goldthwait – Himself * Judy Tenuta – Black Widow (also appeared as herself, as a guest) Category:Original Show